They rode to town on a donkey

forestThe Green movement is founded on simple beliefs that resonate with a broad section of the community. Despite this, voters’ lack of confidence in Green economic policy has stopped them turning to The Greens at the ballot box.

“The Australian Labor Party is associated with the carbon tax and with these nutty fruity ideas …

“The Labor Party was a good, proper organisation, a decent organisation. But the trouble is, as a motor vehicle it looks great but when you lift up the bonnet there is a little green donkey in there.”

Senator Barnaby Joyce, Nationals Senate Leader,
Monday March 26 2012, Radio National Breakfast

In typical style, the lad from St George has created an accurate and perceptive metaphor with little understanding of what he has uttered into existence.

Without permission of the honourable Joyce, the little green donkey might well discard the dilapidated carcass of the ALP and release its inner dragon to successfully and wisely govern a post-materialist, resource-constrained future.

Such a transformation requires significant pain. Since voters will not willingly inflict pain on themselves, the transformation has to take place in the party itself.

The transformation of the political landscape demands a clear and unambiguous vision of the Green future. The transformation of the party demands a frank analysis and a roadmap of the internal and external obstacles to achieving that vision.

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